It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.

I happen to be a big fan of Western civilization; I think it beats the hell out of tyranny and starvation.

Our modern society – especially in the West, and especially now – reveres youth.

I have observed that society in general always seems to honor its living conformists and its dead troublemakers.

The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.

Although I don’t have a prescription for what others should do, I know I have been very fortunate and feel a responsibility to give back to society in a very significant way.

To govern means to pillage, as everyone knows.

Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure.

Excessive literary production is a social offense.

The internet could be a very positive step towards education, organisation and participation in a meaningful society.

In general, mankind, since the improvement of cookery, eats twice as much as nature requires.

I will never relent in defending America – whatever it takes.

I think that people are tired. They’re tired of the same old kind of politics. People want a new tone to politics.

Music is always a commentary on society.

It is not easy to see how the more extreme forms of nationalism can long survive when men have seen the Earth in its true perspective as a single small globe against the stars.

I should tie myself to no particular system of society other than of socialism.

‚My country, right or wrong‘ is a thing no patriot would ever think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying ‚My mother, drunk or sober.‘

I’m trying to make God more relevant in our society. And I think talking in everyday terms and making sure people can understand it – I think that’s important.

Nothing is ever done in this world until men are prepared to kill one another if it is not done.

Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.

Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind.

The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

I like the enemy knowing there are a few guys like me around.

The best security for civilization is the dwelling, and upon properly appointed and becoming dwellings depends, more than anything else, the improvement of mankind.

Politics have no relation to morals.

Perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to the country and to mankind is to bring up a family.

I think the first duty of society is justice.

I believe that many of my young guys lived because I didn’t waste their lives because I didn’t have the vision in my mind of how to destroy the enemy at least cost to our guys and to the innocents on the battlefields.

The value of a dollar is social, as it is created by society.

You’ll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race.

Self-interest is the enemy of all true affection.

For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction.

For me, America is really, truly the indispensable nation.

Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That’s what’s insane about it.

Civilization is the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities.

It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.

One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude.

It’s rare for anyone to value the opinions of a teenage girl.

Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.

Governments are not representative. They have their own power, serving segments of the population that are dominant and rich.

This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.

What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.

Children are all foreigners.

All who think cannot but see there is a sanction like that of religion which binds us in partnership in the serious work of the world.

I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.

There has to be a global mission of human progress.

Progressive art can assist people to learn not only about the objective forces at work in the society in which they live, but also about the intensely social character of their interior lives. Ultimately, it can propel people toward social emancipation.

We are right to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties.

In too much of the West, everyone wants the guarantee of safety, and never having to make any decisions.

There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.

No one can say, ‚I have dropped out – I am no longer in the system.‘ When you’re in prison, you’re even closer to the system: you feel it more, and you might be in there for whatever reason. You don’t transform the system as an absolute thing.

The world is all the richer for having a devil in it, so long as we keep our foot upon his neck.

Society can overlook murder, adultery or swindling; it never forgives preaching of a new gospel.

Hatred is something peculiar. You will always find it strongest and most violent where there is the lowest degree of culture.

If you have an enemy, then learn and know your enemy, don’t just be mad at him or her.

If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace.

Savages we call them because their manners differ from ours.

For the mission’s sake, for our country’s sake, and the sake of the men who carried the Division’s colors in past battles – carry out your mission and keep your honor clean.

True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

Old men are dangerous: it doesn’t matter to them what is going to happen to the world.